Having received a stand mixer for Christmas, it would not be long before I ventured into making my own dough. I have always wanted to make my own pizza from scratch. When I was younger, my brothers would make their own pizzas with ketchup and shredded cheese; I was too young to know that was not real pizza. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it just the same.

Last week I was craving a Margherita pizza: basil, pasta sauce and mozzarella. So I made my own dough, let it rise, made my own sauce (San Marzano tomatoes, basil, olive oil and garlic,) added fresh tomatoes, sliced mozzarella cheese and placed the pizza on a pizza stone in the oven. Minutes later …

The pizza tasted great but my shape was a little off. I made the mistake of building my pizza on a cookie sheet and transferring it to the pizza stone, causing the dough to stretch. In the future I plan to invest in a pizza peel which would make that transfer easier.

I can’t wait to try a Thai chicken pizza!